HOUSING IN RUSSIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 October 1943, Page 4

HOUSING IN RUSSIA

PROBLEM IN LIBERATED AREAS EXTENSIVE USE OF LIGHT MATERIALS. WORKERS PREFER COTTAGES. (By Maxim Makarov in “Soviet War News.”) After the Germans have been driven out, the biggest problem in the liberated areas is to give the people a roof over their heads. Thousands of thousands of comfortable, weather-proof houses have to be built at top speed. .It is the concern of the Institute of Building Technique, in Moscow, to recommend suitable building materials and methods of construction', I called the other day at the Institute’s experimental station, and saw a variety of new building materials, hitherto not used in Russia, and now under test. The staff are particularly interested in “orgalite,” a new type of building block for which the main raw material is — waste paper! The “orgglite” blocks are to be tested in a small model house, in which at the same time a compact new gas-heating system will be tried out —an invention by Professor Stepanenko, of Moscow. If the “orgalite” blocks stand the test, it will mean that bricks and cement, materials in short supply,'can be dispensed with. “Orgalite” blocks can be manufactured almost anywhere, and are easily transportable. They are already being produced in the town of Solikolamsk, in Soviet Asia. If the experiments are successful, “orgalite” blocks will be produced in the Urals at the rate of 3,000.000 square metres per year. The use of light, composite materials for building is becoming general in the Soviet Union. The small cottage-type dwelling is the typical domestic structure in the new industrial districts of the eastern regions, and in the devastated areas. Are these houses durable? Their life span is reckoned at from forty to seventy years. That is more than adequate for modern needs, as equipment very soon becomes outdated and new demands arise, making longevity a liability rather than an asset. At Magnitogorsk they are making building blocks from slag, which is first melted, then processed, after which it resembles cotton-wool, and finally pressed. It is an excellent heat-retain-er. One department of the Institute of Building Technique is concerning itself exclusively with post-war building questions. The post-war building programme will be colossal, and it is essential to make ample preparations today for the mass production of building materials tomorrow. After the war many materials now in short supply will be available to builders. One of those is aluminium, which will be extensively used in the building of the future. A thin plate of aluminium nut on the walls of a building is an excellent retainer of warm rays. A wall coated with thin aluminium foil retains warmth as effectively as a thick brick wall.

Aluminium foil is very cheap to use. From one ton of aluminium, 35,000 square metres of wall foil can be obtained, sufficient for 250 comfortable small houses.

The Institute has done much to help the miners of the liberated Moscow' coal-basin to build their new settlements.

Now it is testing a new method of dry brick-laying, particularly important for building in winter frosts.